CHAPTER 8 

From Psalms cxvii. and cxviii.

The Calling of the Gentiles, God Manifested, and Pressed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord.

[Passages quoted, Pss. cxvii. 1 and cxviii. 25.]

(266) HOLY Scripture records that this prophecy was fulfilled when our Lord and Saviour Christ entered Jerusalem, and a great multitude of men and children went before Him (b) crying with joy, "Hosanna to the Son of David, Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest." For instead of, "O Lord, save us," as expressed in the Psalm, they cried out the Hebrew "Hosanna," which is translated by "save." And the words, "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord," explain the words that follow, "The Lord is God and hath appeared to us." It was, then, one and the same Lord God that appeared to them, that is to say the Word of God, as He Who is therefore blessed, because He came among men in the name of the Lord His Father that sent Him. It was therefore in reproof of the Jews that disbelieved in Him, that He said: "I came in the name of my Father, and ye received me not. But if one come in his own name, him will ye receive." So the Holy Spirit suitably addresses the opening verses of the Psalm not to the Jewish people, but to all the nations.